A U.N. Human Rights Council panel on Friday endorsed a list of recommendations for Japan to improve its human rights record, including its handling of the issue of women forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military before and during World War II.

The working group for the council's Universal Periodic Review examining the human rights records of all U.N. member states compiled a total of 174 recommendations for Japan in a report summarizing findings from a session held earlier this week.

While the recommendations have no legally binding power, Japan is asked to provide its response by March, when the U.N. body will meet for a regular session.

Before the fall of Qing Empire, when Emperor Guangxu was limited by Empress Dowager, Yuan Shi-cai recited a Chinese proverb, “Water falls the lowest seeing one promoting to the ultimate.”, with 3 ambassadors of contemporary power, Britain, France and Japan, drinking a toast to him. He was just a stone a bit larger than dust for Empress Dowager. Ten years on, he monopolized China’s politics but ended soon as smoke.

In China, power is indeed the only truth. By contrast, how to keep power is also a big problem of politics. At a crossroad of history, either continuing economics prosperity or finding a way of reform on politics leads the 18th China’s Communist Party to pass the formidable challenge of ensuring rapid progress in the future.

Time is like an arrow. Last time’s power transition, China accumulated the capital enough to compete with few world’s power in most of fields as 1978-1996 period of 4-timely GDP growth. In 2001, China’s GDP reached 9.59tn yuan, representing an average annual increase 9.3 % before Hu Jing-tao took power over from Jiang Ze-min. And during the following decade, China in Hu’s term enjoyed annual 10.3% high growth. It’s estimated that GDP reach USD 7.56tn in this turning point of this time’s transition. For industrial restructing and European debt, the aftermath of economy in Xi’s term is expected as moderate 7-8% growth.

In post-Deng era, Jiang and Zhu Rong-ji, under the banner of “solidity of the centralization while strengthening technocracy”, ensured the all-directional essential in the process of China’s recovery with Jiang’s warm smile. The modernization of military and politics depended on the liberalized rule and opening mind of both former leaders as serious surveillance everywhere in China. Inside China, Jiang remained stable, especially about the arrangement of officers, and successfully eliminated the voice of dissident, by either armed force or amnesty of diction. Jiang’s image promoted China’s position in the world as “for a more wonderful world” - the compilation of Jiang’s foreign visit - by Zong Zi-chen

In 2003, Hu and Wen Jia-bao succeeded in expectation of democratic approach and rapid economic growth more than ever. In realty, Hu took loosen control of local government, finance, carrying out serious measure of anti-corruption. The fewer interference has China continue growth faster than any other nation; however, the social unrest in Hu’s tenure became more severe than Jiang’s. Although Hu kicked out many corrupt officers such as Chen Liang-yu, the dissatisfaction to government still increased and the thoughts of clear political mechanism prevailed. Besides, the dispute over territory of sea surrounding China became more uncertainty after world war two, including Yellow Sea, East China Sea and South China Sea.

Hu and Wen seems to leave these thorny problems to Xi and Li due to the economic-inclined access to rationality and legitimacy. Always, keeping China’s regime depends on the hierarchy and the efficiency of bureaucracy, rather than democratic or liberalization. That is to say, the political means and control of army still be an indispensable to ensuring the prosperity for some time. Xi accumulates a large scale of “guanxi” (relationship) among China’s politics and business while Li owned the dexterous skill and political grade in local economic promotion with Li’s well-eduacted scholarship in law and economy.

For me, they are very kind of knowing people’s demand and the way of power’s remaining more than Hu and Wen. It’s said that Jiang and Tsang Qing-hong appointed Xi “in a secret room” as Hu’s successor. But the sayings just reflects the truth of Hu’s weaker faction and Jiang’s gorgeous scale. Well, Xi and Li, in expectation of political or economic reform, have the better ability to deal with foreign affairs like financial issue, dispute of territory and with America, Japan and EU. I feel a bit sorry to Hu and Wen, due to their political enforcement poorer than expected - still falling behind developed nation. But I think the situation turns to the better after Xi takes over power. I have high confidence of China’s future 10-yearly exercising policy, based on my experience in Chen Shui-bian’s period. Very soon, the updated information is written in the chapter of national institution in Jiou Hong-chung’s “Constitution”.

As The Economist discussed “the crucial 10-year period for China”, “dialogue” - not just on CCTV - processes both inside and outside China. Every field talks every kind of jargon, leading to new China 2.0. Let's see the most charming Chinese song, during Hu’s term, listening to higher key of Zhou Jie-rong (Jay Zhou) and Fei Yu-qing’s “Beyond A Thousand Miles”

“I see you off -
- to the faraway place, with your pale silence. Never for a continued romance may one love muse in that faraway age.

- to world’s end where you’re still now? Hard to hear of sound of keyboard, let alone your sound, I spend all life ever-staying."

A U.N. Human Rights Council panel on Friday endorsed a list of recommendations for Japan to improve its human rights record, including its handling of the issue of women forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military before and during World War II.

The working group for the council's Universal Periodic Review examining the human rights records of all U.N. member states compiled a total of 174 recommendations for Japan in a report summarizing findings from a session held earlier this week.

While the recommendations have no legally binding power, Japan is asked to provide its response by March, when the U.N. body will meet for a regular session.

You are right. China must focus on its economy and on peace and order. Let the western people spend their time praising their political system to the point of bombing other countries to force them to adopt that system. This was what they did to Libya and they killed more than 40,000 libyans in the process, most of them unarmed civilians.

What does "peace and order" mean?
It is the one same as Syrian President Assad intends to recover.
It means to stay with and maintain Dictatorship of the CCP at the cost of 1.3 billion people under slavery, who have no power of voice, no freedom to move.

'In a room in the village headquarters, Mr Xi’s face is all over the walls' - Let imagine it from Mr. Xi all on the walls. He would have 10, 20, 30 or even more 'faces' to stay differently between his party members of both his side & the other side, his villagers, his people & the outsiders of different levels at the same time as totally usual for any communist politicians?

A report published by the U.S. Department of Justice on September 15, 2011, revealed that in 2010 the U.S. residents aged 12 and above experienced 3.8 million violent victimizations, 1.4 million serious violent victimizations, 14.8 million property victimizations and 138,000 personal thefts. The violent victimization rate was 15 victimizations per 1,000 residents (www.bjs.gov). The crime rate surged in many cities and regions in the United States. In the southern region of the United States, there were 452 violent crimes and 3,438.8 property crimes per 100,000 inhabitants (in 2010) on average (The Wall Street Journal, September 20, 2011). Just four weeks into 2011, San Francisco saw eight homicides -- compared with five during the same time of the previous year, with Oakland racking up 11, when the previous year in the same period it had four (The San Francisco Chronicle, January 29, 2011). Grand larcenies in the subway in New York City increased from 852 in 2010 to 1,075 cases in the first nine months of 2011, a 25 percent jump (The China Press, September 24, 2011). Homicide cases in Detroit in 2011 saw a 13.5 percent rise over 2010 (www.buzzle.com). Between January and October 2011, a total of 123,924 serious crime cases took place in Chicago (portal.chicagopolice.org). An anti-bullying public service announcement declared in January 2011 that more than six million schoolchildren experienced bullying in the previous six months (CNN, March 10, 2011). According to statistics from the Family First Aid, almost 30 percent of teenagers in the United States are estimated to be involved in school bullying

The United States prioritizes the right to keep and bear arms over the protection of citizens' lives and personal security and exercises lax firearm possession control, causing rampant gun ownership. The U.S. people hold between 35 percent and 50 percent of the world' s civilian-owned guns, with every 100 people having 90 guns (Online edition of the Foreign Policy, January 9, 2011). According to a Gallup poll in October 2011, 47 percent of American adults reported that they had a gun. That was an increase of six percentage points from a year ago and the highest Gallup had recorded since 1993. Fifty-two percent of middle-aged adults, aged between 35 and 54, reported to own guns, and the adults' gun ownership in the south region was 54 percent (The China Press, October 28, 2011). The New York Times reported on November 14, 2011, that since 1995, more than 3,300 felons and people convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors had regained their gun rights in the state of Washington and of that number, more than 400 had subsequently committed new crimes, including shooting and other felonies.

The United States is the leader among the world's developed countries in gun violence and gun deaths. According to a report of the Foreign Policy on January 9, 2011, over 30,000 Americans die every year from gun violence and another 200,000 Americans are estimated to be injured each year due to guns (Online edition of the Foreign Policy, January 9, 2011). According to statistics released by the U.S. Department of Justice, among the 480,760 robbery cases and 188,380 rape and sexual assault cases in 2010, the rates of victimization involving firearms were 29 percent and 7 percent, respectively (www.bjs.gov). On June 2, 2011, a shooting rampage in Arizona left six people dead and one injured (The China Press, June 3, 2011). In Chicago, more than 10 overnight shooting incidents took place just between the evening of June 3 and the morning of June 4 (Chicago Tribune, June 4, 2011). Another five overnight shootings occurred between August 12 evening and August 13 morning in Chicago. These incidents have caused a number of deaths and injuries (Chicago Tribune, August 13, 2011). Shooting spree cases involving one gunman shooting dead over five people also happened in the states of Michigan, Texas, Ohio, Nevada and Southern California (The New York Times, October 13, 2011; CNN, July 8, 2011; CBS, July 23, 2011;USA Today, August 9, 2011). High incidence of gun-related crimes has long ignited complaints of the U.S. people and they stage multiple protests every year, demanding the government strictly control the private possession of arms. The U.S. government, however, fails to pay due attention to this issue.

In the United States, the violation of citizens' civil and political rights is severe. It is lying to itself when the United States calls itself the land of the free (The Washington Post, January 14, 2012).

Claiming to defend 99 percent of the U.S. population against the wealthiest, the Occupy Wall Street protest movement tested the U.S. political, economic and social systems. Ignited by severe social and economic inequality, uneven distribution of wealth and high unemployment, the movement expanded to sweep the United States after its inception in September 2011. Whatever the deep reasons for the movement are, the single fact that thousands of protesters were treated in a rude and violent way, with many of them being arrested -- the act of willfully trampling on people' s freedom of assembly, demonstration and speech -- could provide a glimpse to the truth of the so-called U.S. freedom and democracy.

Almost 1,000 people were reportedly arrested in first two weeks of the movement, according to British and Australian media (The Guardian, October 2, 2011). The New York police arrested more than 700 protesters for alleged blocking traffic over Brooklyn Bridge on October 1, and some of them were handcuffed to the bridge before being shipped by police vehicles (uschinapress.com, October 3, 2011). On October 9, 92 people were arrested in New York (The New York Times, October 15, 2011). The Occupy Wall Street movement was forced out of its encampment at Zuccotti Park and more than 200 people were arrested on November 15 (The Guardian, November 25, 2011). Chicago police arrested around 300 members of the Occupy Chicago protest in two weeks (The Herald Sun, October 24, 2011). At least 85 people were arrested when police used teargas and baton rounds to break up an Occupy Wall Street camp in Oakland, California on October 25. An Iraq war veteran had a fractured skull and brain swelling after being allegedly hit in the head by a police projectile (The Guardian, October 26, 2011). A couple of hundred people were arrested when demonstrations were staged in different U.S. cities to mark the Occupy Wall Street movement' s two-month anniversary on November 17 (USA Today, November 18, 2011). Among them, at least 276 were arrested in New York only. Some protesters were bloodied as they were hauled away. Many protesters accused the police of treating them in a brutal way (The Wall Street Journal, November 18, 2011). As a U.S. opinion article put it, the United States could be considered, at least in part, authoritarian. (The Washington Post, January 14, 2012).

The U.S. continued to violate the freedom of its citizens in the name of boosting security levels (The Washington Post, January 14, 2012). The Electronic Frontier Foundation in 2011 released a report, "Patterns of Misconduct: FBI intelligence violations from 2001-2008," which reveals that domestic political intelligence apparatus spearheaded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, continues to systematically violate the rights of American citizens and legal residents. The report shows that the actual number of violations that may have occurred from 2001 to 2008 could approach 40,000 possible violations of law, Executive Order, or other regulations governing intelligence investigations. The FBI issued some 200,000 requests and that almost 60 percent were for investigations of U.S. citizens and legal residents (www.pacificfreepress.com). The New York Times reported on October 20, 2011, that the FBI has collected information about religious, ethnic and national-origin characteristics of American communities (The New York Times, October 20, 2011). According to a Washington Post commentary dated January 14, 2012, the U.S. government can use "national security letters" to demand, without probable cause, that organizations turn over information on citizens' finances, communications and associations, and order searches of everything from business documents to library records. The U.S. government can use GPS devices to monitor every move of targeted citizens without securing any court order or review (The Washington Post, January 14, 2012).

Abuse of power, brutal enforcement of law and overuse of force by U.S. police have resulted in harassment and hurt to a large number of innocent citizens and have caused loss of freedom of some people or even deaths. According to a report carried by the World Journal on June 10, 2011, the past decade saw increasing stop-and-frisks by the New York police, which recorded an annual of 600,000 cases in 2010, almost double of that in 2004. In the first three months of 2011, some 180,000 people experienced stop-and-frisks, 88 percent of whom were innocent people (World Journal, June 10, 2011). In early July of 2011, two police officers beat a mentally ill homeless man to death in Orange County, Southern California (FoxNews.com, September 21, 2011). In August 2011, North Miami police shot and killed a man carrying realistic toy gun (The NY Daily News, September 1, 2011). On Jan. 8, 2011, a Central California man was shot and killed by the police, who thought of him as a gang member only because the jacket he was wearing was red, "the chosen color of a local street gang." (www.kolotv.com, January 19, 2011) In May 2011, Arizona' s police officers raided the home of Jose Guerena and shot him dead in what was described as an investigation into alleged marijuana trafficking. However, the police later found nothing illegal in his home (The Huffington Post, May 25, 2011). Misjudged and wrongly-handled cases continued to occur. According to media reports, Anthony Graves, a Texas man, was imprisoned for 18 years for crimes he did not commit (CBS News, June 22, 2011). Forty-six-year-old Thomas Haynesworth spent 27 years in prison after being arrested at the age of 18 for crimes he didn' t commit (Union Press International, December 7, 2011). Eric Caine, who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment after being tortured by police into confessing to two murders, spent nearly 25 years behind bars.(Chicago Tribune, June 13, 2011).

The United States is the world's richest country, but quite a lot of Americans still lack guarantee for their economic, social and cultural rights that are necessary for personal dignity and self-development.

The United States has not done enough to protect its citizens from unemployment. At no time in the last 60 years had the country's long-term unemployment been so high for so long as it was in 2011. It has been one of the Western developed countries that provide the poorest protection over laborer's rights. It has not yet approved any international labor organization convention in the last 10 years. Moreover, the United States lacks effective arbitration system to deal with enterprises that refuse to make compromise with the employees. The New York Times reported on December 12, 2011, that at last count, 13.3 million people were officially unemployed and that 5.7 million of them had been out of work for more than six months (The New York Times, December 12, 2011). The unemployment rate was 8.9 percent for 2011 (www.bls.gov), and the unemployment rate for American youth between 25 and 34 stood at 26 percent in October of that year (The World Journal, November 18, 2011), with more underemployed. A total of 84 metropolitan areas reported jobless rates of at least 10.0 percent, and El Centro, California, recorded the highest unemployment rate of 29.6 percent in September of 2011 (www.bls.gov). The unemployed people suffered from not only financial pressures but also mental pressures including anxiety and depression.

There is a widening of the gap between the extreme top and bottom (The USA Today, September 13, 2011), showing apparent unfair wealth distribution. The United States claims to have a large population of middle class, making up 80 percent of its total population, while there is only very few impoverished and extremely rich people (The China Press, October 13, 2011). However, this is not the truth. According to the report issued by the U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on October 25, 2011, the richest one percent of American families have the fastest growth of family revenue from 1979 to 2007 with an increase of 275 percent for after-tax income, while the after-tax income of the poorest 20 percent grew by only 18 percent (The World Journal, October 26, 2011). Cable News Network reported on February 16, 2011, that in the last 20 years, incomes for 90 percent of Americans have been stuck in neutral, while the richest 1 percent of Americans have seen their incomes grow by 33 percent. Economic Policy Institute published a paper on October 26, 2011, saying that in 2009 the ratio of wealth owned by the wealthiest one percent to the wealth owned by median household was 225 to 1 (www.epi.org). Besides, in the United States, the best-off 10 percent made on average 15 times the incomes of the poorest 10 percent (Reuters, December 9, 2011). The wealthiest 400 Americans have 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars' worth of assets (The China Press, October 13, 2011), or the same combined wealth as the poorest half of Americans -- over 150 million people (www.currydemocrats.org). The annual incomes of the richest 10 chief executive officers (CEO) were enough to pay the salary of 18,330 employees (The World Journal, October 16, 2011). Roughly 11 percent of Congress members had net worth of more than 9 million U.S. dollars, and 249 members were millionaires. The median net worth: 891,506 U.S. dollars, was almost nine times the typical household (The USA Today, November 16, 2011). A commentary by the Spiegel said that the U.S. has developed into an economic entity of "winners take all." American politician Larry Bartels said that fundamental shifts in wealth allocation was caused by political decisions rather than the consequences of market forces or financial crisis (The Spiegel, October 24, 2011).

Yes, big effort by the Americans as you can see. Yet they still find time to invade two countries over the last ten years, killing in the process, millions of innocent Afghans and Iraqis and to bomb Libya for six months without provocation where they killed more than 40,000 Libyans. There is also the assassination of a couple of Iranian scientists and the jailing of Brad Manning and the numerous war exercises in the Asia Pacific region. All these with borrowed money.

hahayixiao_3140436
no one but no one is going to read your pages of diatribe
maybe you are paid by the line
but either way, effective communication needs to be concise
you just drivelled on that I would lose the will to live even if I wanted to read your factoids

Not knowing so much about China itself, and with all the world talking about and praising China, I thought I would get a book on Chinese history. I was able to get The Penguin History of Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850-2009 for a very good price. Epub as well so I could read it on my Nook.

I must say this book is quite an eye opener. I hadn't realized what a savage and bloody society China was/is. I don't know what the future holds for China but if history is any indication it will be very messy.

I do not think that the new rulers will change China so quickly or smoothly. As long as they are busy with protecting corrupt officials including those on the real top of the CCP, the people will continue to suffer. All the Chinese posters here are well educated middle or higher class people and do not care the peoplw in the following site.

the way things are going I don't think japanese government is going to last much longer.

ASEAN + 3, tri-country currency swap, chinese-japanese youth exchange visit programs, etc., etc., anytime japan was trying to be closer to china, japan was pulled right back with prime its ministers dumped because japan is not yet an independent or free nation and japan has no say on its own foreign, financial or military policy.

japanese as such are still 'wang guo lu/ 亡国奴' since the end of ww2. it's too bad that a few japanese right wingers are not smart enough to see their nation's plight and are raping the will of japanese people for more militarism.

now even americans are beginning to be concerned about japanese right wingers bidding their time to 'pearl harbour' again against america, as these rightwingers thought they cannot take to be 'wang guo lu/ 亡国奴' forever while insisting on not repenting crimes of japanese imperialism.

the first thing japan should do now is to return ryukyus islands to ryukyus people for independence, and that should be done with no if or but. the sooner japan does this, the less crime it beholds on japanese people.

You are wrong about America's feelings towards Japan. We see WW2 as unfortunate history and do not refer to it at all. In fact, for years, most American's would like to see Japan take a more active military role in Asia. To build a larger and more capable military. There has been resistance from Japan on this, so far.

One thing is certain though, Japan is an Ally and Friend of America. Anyone who would attempt hostilities against Japan would receive a great surprise.

Most of all Chinese posters advocate that China is not ready for democracy because most of the people are ignorant and uneducated. It is the official position of the CCP and its followers who are posting comments here. Current system is the most convenient for the corrupt CCP official and thus nobody is interested to change it. Change can be achieved only by the power of the proletariat. The CCP has no function of self-correction at all. How can be? Look at Wen Jiabao whose families amassed $2.7 billion which should belong to the people of China.

OK, you Japanese are knowledgeable and educated, and Japan is a democracy. But how could your people allow your government to run up a public debt of 230% of GDP and have a annual deficit of 10% of GDP? Is it really substainable?

What has your government spent all those money on? Democracy?

Corruption problem in China is bad, but we need to put it in perspective. China ranks 75th in the Corruption Perceptions Index, better than most democracies in the developing world.

I think this guy sadaman is not really interested in china. he is more interested in japan as he should.

when folks addressing matters concerning japan, two things should be put into right perspective:

1. japan is rich thanks to the generous american handouts (in opportunities and tech transfer) over the period of decades of us occupation. japan would have been just another third rate economy of developing country today without american incubation and occupation for some 60 years.

2. japan is no germany, it will never be repentant of its war crimes, to the eventual detriment of japanese people who suffered 2 nukes already.

3. we should all pray for japanese people not to suffer further, including the brainwashing by the rightwingers.

But it would also move up to 70th if Primier Wen can explain away the accusations from New York Times, convincingly.

New York Times is well known for making political motivated, misleading "reports" against people and governments that its owners/management don't like, from Wen Ho Lee stealing American nuclear secrets for Red China:

Ah, it will not be so easy to move up to the 70th in view of the level of corruption in Chinese society.
Bribes are norm in the Chinese history over 3,000 years. Without it nothing will move on in China.

"Never before has China received so much attention" as in the last decade, a boast indicative of a long-standing national inferiority complex. This is not merely a passing observation. Every foreign utterance about China is carefully counted, recorded, weighted, and if necessary responded. When Mrs. Merkel recently visited Beijing for the seventh time, it was stressed that President Hu had also been in Germany seven times. When Kissinger casually happened to mention that he must have been in China about 75 times, a Chinese official immediately corrected him that he had visited 83 times. Kissinger laughed: "I guess they keep better records than I."
From a Chinese perspective, therefore, the task has been accomplished: The world is now paying attention to them.

CPC's 18th Congress raised so many expectations mainly because at present both within the party and in the general public there is a sentiment that "there must be a change, otherwise who knows what will happen next." I agree that the development of social media has created a open space for civil society to a certain degree. On the other hand, it is hard to see whether the Party is motivated enough to push for change. After all, it is the party itself as well as millions of officals affliated with it that will be affected most directly by the reform.

"The people’s mistrust"
Unless you have lived in China, you probably won't understand some of the fundamental shifts in Chinese attitudes and their underlying reasons. From 1949 to 1970s, Chinese were overwhelmingly supportive of the government even during the early parts of the Cultural Revolution. For example during the Korean and Vietnam wars, there were so many volunteers to join the army; the army has no space for all the volunteers.
So what changed that makes people mistrust the government? First, there is the Cultural Revolution, which according to Chairman Deng, eroded people's trust of the government. What makes Cultural Revolution so disheartening is that many families of the government loyalists and supporters, including Mr. Deng's, were tortured and broken apart in the name of the communism purity. However, some of trust was gained back, when the government executed the scapegoat: the Gang of the Four. People still supported the government.
Then, there is the TianAn Square incident. It is a real tragedy because it could have turned out so much better. Mr. Deng was indeed a reformer; he put many reformers in the top government posts to oversee reforms. People were excited, the government has gained back some of its lost trust, especially among the intellectuals, the people who were most oppressed in the Cultural Revolution. Because they believe strongly that the new government will reform, they took to the street. However, the poison of Cultural Revolution still lingers in people's mind. Government didn’t trust the sometimes violent protests, because it was like Cultural Revolution all over again, the images of anarchy and tortures persisted in the minds of the top government leaders. At the same time, people mistrusted the government's promise to carry out reforms and protested more. Many protesters were misled into believe that prolong protests was the best way to change a government. No government has ever tolerated that, even the US government cracked down on all the prolong protests throughout its history. Had the protest being short and communication between the government and the people being more effective, the government would have felt the pressures to reform without resorting to violent crackdowns. Although the government was not entirely to blame for the tragedy, the incident made people distrust government's ability to reform, and there were no more large scale protests in over 20 years.
Thirdly, the western culture revolution after the economic reform also adds to the mistrust of the government. Before China opened up people value patriotism, self-sacrifice above all else, people were ready for sacrifice themselves for the "greater good". After China opened up, people start value money, freedom and fairness. They start to see the current government unable to provide the latter two effectively, and they don't believe in government's ability to reform due to TianAn Square incident. However, as long as people are getting rich, they still support the government, because we Chinese value wealth and peace over freedom and fairness. However, at same time because people value wealth, when they see government officials’ sons driving Ferraris, they are going to be angry at the income disparity and the system that produces it. Furthermore, GDP cannot grow forever; in 10 to 20 years, China will hit its recession. People will grow more discontent. Far sighted, Mr. Fu and Mr. Wen see the danger 10, 2- years down the road and are doing real reforms to the government policies. Now they are passing on the torch to Mr. Xi and his team.
Mr. Xi faces some tough questions ahead. How can the government regain people's trust? Perhaps like what Mr. Deng did before TianAn square incident. How can he make the government more fair and accountable to the governed without losing support within his own party? How can he decrease the income disparity between government officials and commoners? Indeed, Mr. Xi has tough road ahead, and he might need some bold moves cross.

A fair assessment of the China Question (though I believe The Gang of Four were not executed).
One point you merely touched upon, but one that I think will have a more profound significance. The influence of outside (western) culture via the internet and media.
Western culture will have a great effect upon China's future and their decisions whether they like it or not.

Thank you for an interesting post, although I think 10-20 years before China experiences recession may be optimistic. The West has basically stopped buying China's stuff, because their economies are in bad shape and getting worse, and China's people are not yet ready to replace them as 'consumers of last resort'

"Chinese value wealth and peace over freedom and fairness"

Not sure I believe that. It's a story that suits demagogues of course. I think China's people really do want democracy, I don't think they will be happy with 'benevolent' single party rule, since such rule is rarely benevolent for long.

Unfortunately, most of the western media tend to be misleading and even CNN sometime had untrue reports about China. And some people enjoy taking advantage of them to create false beliefs and instability in the country.

Also unfortunately, most of the Chinese media tend to be misleading and even Xinhua News Agency sometimes has untrue reports about America. And some people, such as Martin Jacques, enjoy taking advantage and create false beliefs.

I don't mean to have any prejudge about western media, but from what I know through Chinese media, there's always positive or at least neutral information or knowledge about the western world, including the US. I believe that there's still many misunderstandings about China about almost everything, politics, business, culture, etc. On the one hand, we lack experts specialized in each field to properly and thoroughly introduce our country to the rest of the world through mass media.We are working on it, but it really is a demanding task accumulated from generation to generation, and nowadays, to be frank, most Chinese people choose and have to mind their own business before we can do anything for our country like this. On the other hand, western scholars and media professionals may interpret things happened in China according to their own logic and common sense, and even don't want to believe a word of Chinese media, which usually lead to biased and mostly negative view points.

" I believe that there's still many misunderstandings about China about almost everything, politics, business, culture, etc. On the one hand, we lack experts specialized in each field to properly and thoroughly introduce our country to the rest of the world through mass media."

Why is the West so negative about China, and don't listen to those China specialist, because those specialist have got it terribly wrong in the past. Most China specialist in the West are too much in love with China, to give an accurate assessment Here are some of their blunders.

1) Great Leap Forward was a natural disaster, no one was starving they said. Until overseas Chinese students / other Chinese started to trickle out of China in early 1960s, that was the standard line.

2) Rosy proclamations of the Cultural Revolution

3) The Romanticization of Mao.

I once heard a History Professor for Chinese History in the 1980s say those studying Chinese studies, all love the country, then he said you don't find that much with those studying USSR. Its OK to "love" what you study, but often in the case of China Specialist it clouds their judgement.

All of young Chinese people, say the West needs to understand China more etc etc. Look guys some of these Western Chinese specialist have been studying China before your parents were even born !!

As for Martin Jacques book, its trash. First he is not a China specialist, he does not even read Chinese. i read the book, and it was a waste of a good 6-7 hours of one's life. He makes Chinese feel good about themselves, but is it reality. NO.Do all Children in the PRC learn Confucius. No.

"Naturally, the reader wonders, `When China rules the world, in what language will the world take its instructions?' and Martin Jacques deals with this in the section `Can You Speak Mandarin?' Here, we find the usual: Mandarin has become popular as a second language in countries like South Korea and Thailand. It still hasn't taken off in the West, however, perhaps because of the US's and UK's "abiding linguistic insularity and their failure to comprehend the wide-ranging implications of China's rise." Jacques goes on to say that Mandarin "will probably in time join English as a global lingua franca and perhaps eventually surpass it." And then: "The nascent competition between English and Mandarin for the status of global lingua franca... is fascinating... because... they could hardly be more different: one alphabetic, the other pictographic...." Only, there is virtually no competition between English and Mandarin, and the situation is not nascent. Furthermore, Chinese script is not pictographic. This gaffe, along with the fact Jacques cannot pronounce the Chinese words he attempts to slip into conversation in his promotional videos, are clear indicators he doesn't speak Mandarin. Not that I'm calling Mr. Jacques a hypocrite. That would be a grave insult to hypocrites everywhere. Perhaps it's just that Jacques prefers to cling to his linguistic insularity and fails to comprehend the wide-ranging implications of China's rise."

'How can the government regain people's trust? Perhaps like what Mr. Deng did before TianAn square incident. How can he make the government more fair and accountable to the governed without losing support within his own party? How can he decrease the income disparity between government officials and commoners?'

I am a white Canadian? or Singaporean Indian? I prefer wudang wushu guess, because it s more fun being Indian. Martin Jacque's books is crap. I am not saying because he loves China, I am saying it because his analysis is laughable, and he does not understand China. One is better off reading books by Jonathan Spence or some other Sinologist.

What he says of China, can even be applied to the ROC even more, which he does not really mention in his book. If you look at the government structure of the PRC, its basically copied root and branch from the USSR, there is very little Chinese at all about it. But if you look at the ROC, there are two very distinctive Chinese bodies (ie Control Yuan and the Examination Yuan)

Okay, I agree that there are some specialists that provide biased opinions about some of our modern history, but you cannot conclude that it is the common phenomenon.

Most of the Chinese (even ordinary citizens instead of history scholars) believe that:

1 The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution (certainly not mentioned in the history textbooks for elementary schools) are a total disaster to China, and they at least dragged the economy backward in a decade. People suffered a lot both physically and spiritually, and there was great loss in Chinese culture as well ( many historic literature and documents and masterpieces at that time were destroyed and many great people died)

2 It is common sense for Chinese people to "look at both sides" when we want to make comments on a person, especially for those critical characters like Chairman Mao. Nowadays, we usually said that what Mao brought to China is 70% contribution and 30% detriment. We admire him for bring our country to freedom and we appreciate some of his literature (e.g. poems), but we are also clear that because he was not good at economic development and was afraid of losing control on the country, he had terribly wrong policy that led our country into a period of another nightmare.

This is just one example in response to what you mentioned to show that we Chinese love our country, and it's not blind love. We have a clear picture in mind what the weaknesses are for our country(in the past, present and future) and for Chines people in common, just like we cherish our culture and history and current achievements, even if we are not a economist or a sociologist and couldn't list every weakness and analyze on it.

Okay, I agree that there are some specialists that provide biased opinions about some of our modern history, but you cannot conclude that it is the common phenomenon.

Most of the Chinese (even ordinary citizens instead of history scholars) believe that:

1 The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution (certainly not mentioned in the history textbooks for elementary schools) are a total disaster to China, and they at least dragged the economy backward in a decade. People suffered a lot both physically and spiritually, and there was great loss in Chinese culture as well ( many historic literature and documents and masterpieces at that time were destroyed and many great people died)

2 It is common sense for Chinese people to "look at both sides" when we want to make comments on a person, especially for those critical characters like Chairman Mao. Nowadays, we usually said that what Mao brought to China is 70% contribution and 30% detriment. We admire him for bring our country to freedom and we appreciate some of his literature (e.g. poems), but we are also clear that because he was not good at economic development and was afraid of losing control on the country, he had terribly wrong policy that led our country into a period of another nightmare.

This is just one example in response to what you mentioned to show that we Chinese love our country, and it's not blind love. We have a clear picture in mind what the weaknesses are for our country(in the past, present and future) and for Chines people in common, just like we cherish our culture and history and current achievements, even if we are not a economist or a sociologist and couldn't list every weakness and analyze on it.

Okay, I agree that there are some specialists that provide biased opinions about some of our modern history, but you cannot conclude that it is the common phenomenon.

Most of the Chinese (even ordinary citizens instead of history scholars) believe that:

1 The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution (certainly not mentioned in the history textbooks for elementary schools) are a total disaster to China, and they at least dragged the economy backward in a decade. People suffered a lot both physically and spiritually, and there was great loss in Chinese culture as well ( many historic literature and documents and masterpieces at that time were destroyed and many great people died)

2 It is common sense for Chinese people to "look at both sides" when we want to make comments on a person, especially for those critical characters like Chairman Mao. Nowadays, we usually said that what Mao brought to China is 70% contribution and 30% detriment. We admire him for bring our country to freedom and we appreciate some of his literature (e.g. poems), but we are also clear that because he was not good at economic development and was afraid of losing control on the country, he had terribly wrong policy that led our country into a period of another nightmare.

This is just one example in response to what you mentioned to show that we Chinese love our country, and it's not blind love. We have a clear picture in mind what the weaknesses are for our country(in the past, present and future) and for Chines people in common, just like we cherish our culture and history and current achievements, even if we are not a economist or a sociologist and couldn't list every weakness and analyze on it.

Okay, I agree that there are some specialists that provide biased opinions about some of our modern history, but you cannot conclude that it is the common phenomenon.

Most of the Chinese (even ordinary citizens instead of history scholars) believe that:

1 The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution (certainly not mentioned in the history textbooks for elementary schools) are a total disaster to China, and they at least dragged the economy backward in a decade. People suffered a lot both physically and spiritually, and there was great loss in Chinese culture as well ( many historic literature and documents and masterpieces at that time were destroyed and many great people died)

2 It is common sense for Chinese people to "look at both sides" when we want to make comments on a person, especially for those critical characters like Chairman Mao. Nowadays, we usually said that what Mao brought to China is 70% contribution and 30% detriment. We admire him for bring our country to freedom and we appreciate some of his literature (e.g. poems), but we are also clear that because he was not good at economic development and was afraid of losing control on the country, he had terribly wrong policy that led our country into a period of another nightmare.

This is just one example in response to what you mentioned to show that we Chinese love our country, and it's not blind love. We have a clear picture in mind what the weaknesses are for our country(in the past, present and future) and for Chines people in common, just like we cherish our culture and history and current achievements, even if we are not a economist or a sociologist and couldn't list every weakness and analyze on it.

Okay, I agree that there are some specialists that provide biased opinions about some of our modern history, but you cannot conclude that it is the common phenomenon.

Most of the Chinese (even ordinary citizens instead of history scholars) believe that:

1 The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution (certainly not mentioned in the history textbooks for elementary schools) are a total disaster to China, and they at least dragged the economy backward in a decade. People suffered a lot both physically and spiritually, and there was great loss in Chinese culture as well ( many historic literature and documents and masterpieces at that time were destroyed and many great people died)

2 It is common sense for Chinese people to "look at both sides" when we want to make comments on a person, especially for those critical characters like Chairman Mao. Nowadays, we usually said that what Mao brought to China is 70% contribution and 30% detriment. We admire him for bring our country to freedom and we appreciate some of his literature (e.g. poems), but we are also clear that because he was not good at economic development and was afraid of losing control on the country, he had terribly wrong policy that led our country into a period of another nightmare.

This is just one example in response to what you mentioned to show that we Chinese love our country, and it's not blind love. We have a clear picture in mind what the weaknesses are for our country(in the past, present and future) and for Chines people in common, just like we cherish our culture and history and current achievements, even if we are not a economist or a sociologist and couldn't list every weakness and analyze on it.

SORRY THAT THE LAST REPLY WAS POSTED 5 TIMES (DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED)
Just wanna add something:
"Do all children in the PRC learn Confucius?"-- Yes! Of course!
Maybe not all his masterpieces and maybe not in-depth enough, but they are included in our literature textbook from junior high to the universities.
We may not be able to discover the value of them when we first learned about them, but as we grow up, we just learn to cherish them because they are guiding us through our life.
Of course we are not all experts for confucian or taoist, and some young people in China even suck in Chinese history courses, but I really have the feeling that cultural stuff are something that is melt in our blood, everyone can feel it even when he cannot tell or share it.
P.S. even Confucius had some "wrong" concepts or viewpoints and we just take the "good part" when we learn his works

{'How can the government regain people's trust? Perhaps like what Mr. Deng did before TianAn square incident. How can he make the government more fair and accountable to the governed without losing support within his own party? How can he decrease the income disparity between government officials and commoners?'
Turn to the US for help and to be an American Chinese...}
LOL~The following might be biased opinions and feel free to correct me cos you certainly know better~
Just see the current situation of Iraq and libya, and we are sure that the US can never be trusted. The smartest American knows how to swift his own risk or burden to the others and even earn a fortune from it (from what I know about the ongoing financial crisis and two main wars in current years).
The US may have enough money and is willing to "save" one person in order to gain trust and admiration (to let him/her believe that the US is the best and can provide everything for everyone), but not capable enough of solving issues in another country, or just clever enough and not willing to (after getting what it wanted from that country).
(I love a lot about the US: its friendly people, education, music, technology, TV series, Disney & Universal Studio, etc. I also admire the ability to make benefits for its people from the outside, but not from the expense of others.)
Besides, although there are lots of unsatisfactory things about Chinese government and tons of tough problems in China economic development, I doubt there could be others that could have led the country to a significant better situation from 1945, because there have been so many demanding tasks left since then and I believe that those like Deng and Xi are working really hard and the whole condition is improving in such a slow pace even with drawbacks that appears to be disappointing. We feel disappointed with specific existing problems, but have faith for the future.

P.S. What the US offered to China during the World War II was remarkable and touching, though, and we will be grateful for that forever. (we won't judge a person or a country only according to one or some "evidence")

"1 The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution (certainly not mentioned in the history textbooks for elementary schools) are a total disaster to China, and they at least dragged the economy backward in a decade. People suffered a lot both physically and spiritually, and there was great loss in Chinese culture as well ( many historic literature and documents and masterpieces at that time were destroyed and many great people died)"

You must recognize and admit that it was a natural disaster as well as man made disaster to greater extent, i.e. great mistake conducted by the CCP and Mao. 20 million people starved to death and great many places become waste land due to cutting all trees for home made steel furnace.

Destroying books and arts were done during the Cultural Revolution which followed the Great Leap. Not only destroying those itesm, millions of teachers, artists, scholars, lawyers, doctors and and and were informed, lynched and executed and murdered by the fellow countrymen.

"Okay, I agree that there are some specialists that provide biased opinions about some of our modern history, but you cannot conclude that it is the common phenomenon."

Please read what I said, its the China experts in the West. It has nothing to do with Chinese historians in the PRC.

The Americans have a love/hate relationship with China, compared to a distrust/disinterested relationship with countries like Russia/Iran etc. In the 1930-40s, alot of Americans were very interested in China, very sympathetic. Even when the CPC took poor, they were still hopeful.

Even couple of years after Great Leap Forward, some professors of Chinese Studies in the West, were lauding how great it was etc. The same with the Cultural Revolution. But they were horribly wrong

People place a lot of faith in "specialist", and when were wrong people began to question their judgement.

""Do all children in the PRC learn Confucius?"-- Yes! Of course!
Maybe not all his masterpieces and maybe not in-depth enough, but they are included in our literature textbook from junior high to the universities.
We may not be able to discover the value of them when we first learned about them, but as we grow up, we just learn to cherish them because they are guiding us through our life."

Its not a mandatory subject at school, and many Chinese children, don't make it past elementary school. In Taiwan its mandatory, and its taught at a very early age (elementary school). Confucius's birthday is also an official holiday. The cultural stuff is not in your blood, if its not taught you won't really gain an appreciation of it, and only have a superficial understanding. Is the understanding of Confucius in the PRC better on average than in Taiwan, I doubt it, particularly for those between the ages of 40-60, who were definitely not taught Confucius at school.

I am actually not Canadian, and definitely not in Eastern Canada. I studied in Canada for a couple of years, but I am not Canadian. Sorry, Wudang Wushu is more correct than you. I am closer to being a smelly Singaporean Indian, than a Canadian.

Western culture will have a great effect upon China's future and their decisions whether they like it or not.
----------------
Even more to the point is the growing number of Americans, Europeans and Africans who are learning the Chinese language, the Chinese culture and the Chinese history.
There is no doubt that the western culture will influence the Chinese but it is true to say that the Chinese culture will also influence the western people especially on matters of human relationship and the conduct of foreign policies. China will show the western countries how to use dialogue to solve international disputes instead of using naked military force like invasions, bombings, killings and torturing. China will also teach them how to cooperate instead of applying sanctions.

And the western people teache how to invade other countries without provocation and to kill and torture their inhabitants by the tens of millions, how to drop bombs on the cities of other countries like they did in Libya where they killed more than 40,000 civilians, how to assassinate politicians and scientists in other countries, how to lie, and to steal people from other countries and turn them into slaves.

Historically China has been an invader all the time.
As for killing civilians, CCP/Mao and followers killed 7 million innocent civilians during the Cultural Revolution.
As far as the crime of killing is concerned, it does not matter where you did it, within China or outside, by invasion or by personal vengeance.

yes，i agree with you that The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution are also man-made disasters (at least 60%), and i know better about this period of history than you do. i never mean to deny the mistakes made by Chairman Mao (pleas DO read the WHOLE passage of mine before you reply, thanks~)

"Please read what I said, its the China experts in the West. It has nothing to do with Chinese historians in the PRC.

The Americans have a love/hate relationship with China, compared to a distrust/disinterested relationship with countries like Russia/Iran etc. In the 1930-40s, alot of Americans were very interested in China, very sympathetic. Even when the CPC took poor, they were still hopeful.

Even couple of years after Great Leap Forward, some professors of Chinese Studies in the West, were lauding how great it was etc. The same with the Cultural Revolution. But they were horribly wrong

People place a lot of faith in "specialist", and when were wrong people began to question their judgement."

I am really sorry for my misunderstanding, and this is actually something new to me. Thank you for your detailed explanation.

"Its not a mandatory subject at school, and many Chinese children, don't make it past elementary school. In Taiwan its mandatory, and its taught at a very early age (elementary school). Confucius's birthday is also an official holiday.
The cultural stuff is not in your blood, if its not taught you won't really gain an appreciation of it, and only have a superficial understanding.
Is the understanding of Confucius in the PRC better on average than in Taiwan, I doubt it, particularly for those between the ages of 40-60, who were definitely not taught Confucius at school."

1) I DON'T LIE about these kind of stuff in order to blindly shield my country, but it is MANDATORY for us from junior high to university in the mainland.

2) I don't think that how well we understand Confucian depends on how early we learn it. For children in elementary schools, it might be hard to raise their interest to learn and also to understand the meanings.

However, the main ideas of Confucian was taught by parents to kids when we were young, even for those parents who may never read about masterpieces of Confucius (if you know the main ideas, you will understand that those concepts are what we Chinese people appreciated for thousands and hundreds of years)

I remembered the first time I learnt one of Confucius work (the Analects), I was first curious and excited. Then after I figure out the meanings of the sentences, I admit that I was kinda disappointed because they are just things that we were taught since we were born.
However, as I grow up, learning more about Confucius and his work, and having more experiences in life, I gradually realize the value he left to us and I really cherish them now--they are simple and plain, but true guidance in life)

Besides, we also learnt about his contribution to politics & economy, literature, history and esthetics (I can provide details if you want), as well as masterpieces he revised (《诗经》THE BOOK OF SONGS, 《周易》THE BOOK OF CHANGES, etc.) Maybe schools in some regions in China don't teach 《周易》THE BOOK OF CHANGES as a mandatory.

3) I think you already know that Chinese between 40-60 experienced the the Cultural Revolution
at their childhood and they didn't receive enough education. Only those who really like to study and have strong self-discipline managed to go to universities to receive higher education when the college entrance exam was reopened by Deng. It's a great pity for their generation and you cannot blame them for that. Like I said earlier, I admit that this is a huge mistake of our government (everyone in China admit it).

Speaking of the average level of understanding about Confucius, I think that most of the Chinese know about the core concepts even if they haven't learnt about him at school ( I don't mean that we are familiar about every aspect of his contribution and every masterpieces of him).
However, I do admit that the average education level is pretty low throughout Mainland China if we include rural areas (Education is good most major cities, but the problem for rural areas are serious and one of the most demanding task for our government and responsibility for all of us). It takes time to solve and reflects many critical problems about rural issues, uneven development and inadequate policy, etc. There are people working hard on them, but also many resistant force (lack of teachers for the education aspect, still not enough rich people willing to donate, corruption, etc.) and complicated difficulties(mainly because there are too many people needed help and cannot make enough profits themselves due to both their own ability and force from the outside).

4) Whether we respect Confucius doesn't depend on whether we have an official holiday (the respect is within our heart: maybe students may like to make jokes of him, but they don't mean to defy him at all. Don't you also make little jokes of Aristotle, Shakespeare, etc)

"The Chinese also teach them how to burn Japanese shops, loot etc. Very good. I can't wait."

The protest against Japanese government's attitude was not supposed to ruin anything but pure protest and express the anger by words (first organized by some college students). Unfortunately, it was used by some other people making a chaos and was then stopped by the government immediately. Most Chinese people are rational and certainly wouldn't expect such things and feel sorry for that.

Although we emotionally hate more than anything else what the Japanese did during the World War II and their current attitude towards this issue, we still try our best to maintain friendly relationship with Japan in politics, economy and even culture industry for the sake of peace and social welfare in both countries and also the rest of the world. And we never express our anger towards a specific Japanese citizen unless he/she keep saying that we are wrong about that part of history on purpose (we would avoid mentioning it because it's not the current ordinary Japanese citizens fault. )

In addition, I would like you to imagine: If you were a Jewish person, and Germany never admit what they did during the World War II, and they even write in history textbooks that they have never killed an ordinary Jewish citizen and Auschwitz was just a common military event, how would you feel about it? Please let your conscience tell.

"Although we emotionally hate more than anything else what the Japanese did during the World War II and their current attitude towards this issue, we still try our best to maintain friendly relationship with Japan in politics, economy and even culture industry for the sake of peace and social welfare in both countries and also the rest of the world. And we never express our anger towards a specific Japanese citizen unless he/she keep saying that we are wrong about that part of history on purpose (we would avoid mentioning it because it's not the current ordinary Japanese citizens fault. )"
Why do you hate the Japanese more than others? Why do you not hate Manchurians who invaded and conquered Han dynasty for hundreds of years more than else? Were Manchurians kinder than the Japnese? Were they less brutal than the Japanese? Japan only invaded China for some years and did not qonquer whole China but only partly.
Mao told more than onece that Communist China is thankful for Imperial Army for fighting KMT and reducing their power which enabled the CCP to win the civil war. So why the Chinese hate so much the Japanese? Same applies to Koreans who also hate Japan.
The reason for both the Chines and Koreans hate Japan so much is because of the education policy the rulers imposed. In case of China this education of Japan bashing started only in the late 1980s and was further strengthened by Jiang Zemin who is a real Japanese hater as he lost his families during the war. This education has been conducted under the name of elevation of nationalism. Communist China had to do it because communism became obsolete idea among the Chinese to unite the people. Today communism means only political dictatorship by the CCP, while the people live with mantra of money, me first. If without this very strong nationalism, China will fall apart. So Japan became the sheep for Chinese politics. Same applies to Korea. Korea also went through military dictatorship for long time and the rulers used Japan as an scape goat for their failures.
See, this extreme level of hate does not exist in other Asian countries where imperial army did the same thing. I do not know much about this hate level in China by geographical aspect. But for me it seems it is unanimous all over China/Korea and it is a strange phenomenon.
Anyway we must watch how the new rulers of China will treat Japan.

How do you know its mandatory across all of China? You don't know. I know its mandatory in Taiwan. It varies from school to school in China. Some schools teach it, some don't. I am pretty sure the average Taiwanese would will have a better understanding of it than people in the Mainland.

I disagree, Confucius is philosophy, you have to read it understand it, its meant to be read. Do Christian who have not read the Bible understand it more than those who have? No. With Confucius its even more so.

What has burning and looting of Japanese stores in China have anything to do with what happened in WW2? It happened 70 years ago. You don't see that in the rest of Asia.

Let's be frank, I feel uncomfortable with comparing what the Japanese did to China and the Holocaust. Its very different in scale. The best comparison is what Germany did in Poland and the USSR. It took a long time for the Germans apologized to the Poles, it was not until the eighties was there an apology.

Good article relating how China is positioned at a turning point. For many European economies, the position in favor of more trade and industry is a partial outcome. For Americans the advance of these technologies can grow with the US or before the US that remains to be seen. The Scaheffler Group will keep abreast of the manufacturing advances worldwide and continue to produce a quality product in the world markets. More companies will also follow this path.

We should let Chinese people do the change, it is not foreigner's business. As Australian PM (Julia) said no one can stop China's rise and it is useless to stop China's military might. IT is naturally.
China must have done something correct which made the west so nervious.

No and no.
People of the west aren't nervous about China's rise or military "might". Rather, it is the prevailing opinion that China isn't ready to assume a major leadership position in this world. I would compare China to a teenager; much too brash and headstrong.

There will be a time for China to SHARE in leadership of world affairs. Perhaps 20 or 30 years down the road. You must have patience.

The day we remove our inbuilt bias against china and look at it simply as what it has done in the last 30 years, then we can have a debate. These pre-conceived notions and fear of china is not bringing out the real change that is happening to the people on the ground. Chinese may not have all the sophistication and communication skills that the west wants and expects and ridicules any one who doesn't is passé, new paradigm is china. China will write the new rules whether we like it or not.
I hope people appreciate the people that have been removed from abject poverty, 95pct health cover in less than 10 years... Every where else we just debate, but Chinese just do it.
We may not agree with their political choice, butler the people of china decide what is good for them and not try needling every time the growth slows or there is a protest against a company or govt agency. This happens in every country, but they are not highlighted because everyone in the west is afraid of losing the pre-eminence. History repeats and just be prepared to handle it.

China has been on a rise for a mere 2 decades or so. And now, after such a short amount of time, you are ready to proclaim a new era. Premature dreams.
As to China's list of achievements, I would advise caution. Some would report them to be exaggerated.

Actually concerns were voiced over various perceived economic bubbles. Back in the early 2000s (and/or late 1990s), the Economist raised the possibility of economic busts occurring in China, in their roadshows showcasing the Economist Intelligence Unit.

I had the pleasure to sit in on a couple of presentations at the time. Don't recall any statement that China will collapse if it Liberal Democracy is not implemented.

The Soviets were already in trouble by the early 1990s. One reason they sought reform. Even Andropov made noise about needing to correct problems back in 1982 and imbue more discipline amongst workers and clear up corruption (so his reforms suggested more of a crackdown than emulating the west).

Gorbachev sought to import ideas from the west and liberalize.

I think the shock treatment of western advice really followed later, with successor states, like in the Baltics and Russian Federation. Of course problems of privatization and retiring a political system that encompassed multiple ethnicities/nations (Soviet Communism), were quite unprecedented.

You must have heard of Gordon Chang and the like? I personally have heard from these "experts", both western and Chinese in the last 20 years who have said that if the Chinese political system is not changed/improved to be a liberal democracy to free people's mind, it would run into a deadend and collaspe.

True, the Soviets were already in economic trouble due to the Arms race with the Americans in the early 1990s but so has been the Cubans.
Gorbachev chose to take the western advice to liberalize, way too fast, and went out of control and caused the Republic to break up.
And now ending up with Putin for better or worse.
Gorbachev should open up but gradually and cautiously, like China did. The USSR may still be around today with better economic conditions.

Actually Gorbachev moved on his own I believe. I think you are confusing advice given to Yeltsin with the policies of Gorbachev.

My understanding and recollection (since I was around then) was that Glasnost and Perestroika were solely Gorbachev's initiative.

As for the Soviets' problems, a big issue was the mounting difficulty with exercising central planning with an increasingly sophisticated economy, and undeveloped sectors for supporting consumers (like consumer goods, consumables and durables).

Similarly, seems diminishing returns were becoming apparent, with the old Soviet approach of pouring labor and capital into production no longer working magic.

In the case of agriculture, seems not much moved the dial, or moved the dial sufficiently to support the needs of the general population.

Also, there were no longer Stalins willing to shoot malingerers on the spot, enforce worker discipline severly, or carry out production campaigns. A couple of efforts at alcoholism and absenteeism failed under Gorbachev and Andropov.

Finally the economy was unbalanced towards heavy industry, to support the military and prized sectors of communists. That last point has bearing on the arms race, but I suspect the Soviets' would have continued investing a ton of resources on the military out of inertia, dating back to 1928, or even earlier, with Czar Nicholas' programs.

"Have heard of Gordon Chang. I guess the immediate thought is "so what". There are a ton of prognosticators out there."

Exactly. These are the same "experts" who consider their "wishful thinking" as predictions. People like Scyllaisarock who wishs for the negative would 'listen closely and sees storm cloud gathering'.

Yes, Gordon discussed bubbles in China in CNN and said China is in the enormous economic cyclone downward spin and will collaspe this year. Altrough he said that few times already and China was 'supposed' to collaspe 2 years ago the last he predicted it.

I tend to believe the professionals in the IMF and World Bank more. Their prediction is China will grow by ~7.5% this year and actually grow faster next year at ~7.8%.

I don't believe the IMF or World Bank. So do the Chinese leaders. Why because they know who collects the Data, that is why. National Accounting is as good as the data collectors. Given how the Chinese bureaucracy works, those data collectors are not the brightest lot or the best paid. You pay peanuts and you get monkey.

So you prefer to believe Gorden Chang and the like? I said I believe the IMF and world "More". These are predictions, not facts. You just have to make an educational choice.

The Chinese data may not be the most accurate, but the increase of Chinese tourists around the world every year tells me something. This is not considering the Luxury shops in HongKong that are full of mainlanders every business day. If the Indian growth is more than 6%, the Chinese ones have to be more than that. The economists at IMF and World Bank are not fools, unlike the many posters here.